Stotler: Everybody’s chasing Vincennes

Published 10:05 pm, Monday, January 23, 2017

LCCC sophomore Will Sides scored 24 points and pulled down 10 rebounds in his team’s recent victory over Lincoln Trail Community College in Godfrey.

LCCC sophomore Will Sides scored 24 points and pulled down 10 rebounds in his team’s recent victory over Lincoln Trail Community College in Godfrey.

Stotler: Everybody’s chasing Vincennes

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GODFREY — All season long, LCCC men’s basketball coach Doug Stotler has stressed that the difference between teams in NJCAA District 16/Region 24 is minuscule at best. Following the recent weekend’s action, Stotler felt the need to add one caveat.

Everybody’s chasing Vincennes now.

LCCC, which held off Lincoln Trail Community College of Robinson on Saturday afternoon 75-74 at the River Bend Arena, is indeed one of the 10 teams chasing Vincennes University.

Vincennes, which is the only NJCAA Division I team in Region 12, is included with the Region 24 teams when it comes to postseason action - and the battle for an eventual berth in the NJCAA National Tournament.

Vincennes is riding an eight-game wining streak following a 92-51 blowout of Wabash Valley College Saturday night.

That lopsided result was only Wabash Valley’s third loss of the season in 17 games. The Warriors were included in the NJCAA national poll last week. Following the loss to then-No. 15 VU, however, that will likely change.

“We played pretty well,” Stotler said of his team’s win over Lincoln Trail. “But everybody is chasing Vincennes right now.

“I know I have said there’s not much difference among any of the region teams, and I still say that,” he said. “But right now, Vincennes is that team everybody is trying to chase.”

LCCC is 8-8 overall and 5-4 against region competition. The Trailblazers lost to Vincennes 94-74 Jan. 67 in Godfrey.

Vincennes, which has won a pair of national championships, is 18-1 overall and 8-1 in play against Region 24 teams. That lone loss? An 80-73 Loss Dec. 10 at the hands of John A. Logan College in Carterville.

The Vincennes Trailblazers have had some other close calls, including a 77-71 win at Shawnee and a 79-76 win at Kaskaskia.

But the most notable to LCCC fans would be an 86-85 overtime home win over Lincoln Trail Jan. 14. That’s the same Lincoln Trail team LCCC defeated Saturday, lending credence to Stotler’s theory of Region 24 equality.

Wabash Valley is 7-2 against region teams and 14-4 overall. The Warriors are followed by Kaskaskia 13-3 and 6-3, John A Logan 10-6 and 6-3, Shawnee 10-6 and 5-4, LCCC 8-8 and 5-4, SWIC 7-1-0 and 3-6, Lincoln Trail 5-11 and 3-6, Southeastern Illinois 4-14 and 3-6, Lake Land 6-12 abnd 3-7 and Olney central 9-9 and 1-8.

“(Vincennes) is playing very well now,” he said. “But Lincoln Trail has some excellent players.”

In Saturday’s win over LTC’s Statesmen, Lewis and Clark got up early, then held on.

“(LTC) started playing really well,” Stotler said. “But at the end, it was a case of whoever had it last and made the least mistakes.”

LCCC got a 24-point, 10-rebound effort from Will Sides. The 5-foot-11 sophomore guard from Indianapolis is averaaging 17.8 points and 5.3 rebounds per game.

The last two and a half games, Trailblazers have been without Luka Radosevic, a 6-7 freshman from Begrade, Serbia. He suffered a hip flexor injury during a 114-107 home win over Lake Land on Jan. 16. That means the Trailblazers are without his 8.8 points and four rebounds per game. It’s not known when he’ll be able to return.

“His absence obviously takes away some points and rebounds,” Stotler said. “But we’ve had a couple players step in and take up some of the slack.”

Can Oztamur, a freshman from Raleigh, North Carolina, has come on to average 6.6 points and 3.2 rebounds per game and Odawale Odifin has pulled down three rebounds and scored 6.6 points per game.

With 12 regular-season games remaining, there’s plenty of time for teams to maneuver their way around the standings.

When all is said and done, the bottom four teams in the region will play a pair of play-in games, to decide which gets to join the rest of the teams at the Region 24 Tournament in early March at a neutral site, Division II Rend Lake Community College in Ina near Mount Vernon.

LCCC will travel to Southeastern Illinois for a 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Harrisburg. Saturday, the Trailblazers will play host to Kaskaskia. Earlier this season, LCCC defeated Kaskaskia 89-64 in Centralia. The Trailblazers will play their second game against Southeastern on March 3 in the regular-season finale.

“Southeastern is tough at home and Kaskaskia is a team that is really playing well,” Stotler said. “(Southeastern and Kaskaskia) are two games that will definitely be a challenge.